The National Clearinghouse Project just released a report on student transfer paths and community college. Another reports that illustrates the “new normal” on college campuses – one that was always been familiar to Latinos and other people of color. According to the study:

One-third of all students switch institutions at least once before earning a degree…

The “traditional” path of entering and graduating from the same institution is decreasingly followed, the report says. Students transfer across state lines and institution types, and even “reverse transfer” from four-year to two-year colleges.

A PEW Hispanic Research report earlier in the year, detailing growth in Latino college attendance, provides a bit more context to the NCP report:

Of all young Hispanics who were attending college last October, some 46% were at a two-year college and 54% were at a four-year college. By contrast, among young white college students, 73% were enrolled in a four-year college, as were 78% of young Asian college students and 63% of young black college students.

Key to these numbers is getting Latinos through the “path” and across the graduation stage.